The State of Jordan has never been much of an ally of the West.. it's been involved since 1946 in running battles with first the Palistinians, then with the new state of Istael, over posession of the West Bak and the Gaza Strip..
A point of explanation here.. the West Bank is the area to the west of the Dead Sea, from the Sea itself roughly to Jerusalem in the middle, Nablus in the north, and Hebron in the south...
When the State of Israel was originally created, by effort of a UN resolution passed in November 1947, it was to have been an Israeli/Palistinian State, but the panArab League led by Egypt at the time, was always against the concept. Terrorist attacks against Israel from the other Arab States were constant, and caused a mass exodus of Palisitians into Jordan itself.
By 1952, King Hussein was ruling in Jordan.. the Egyptian Monarchy had been overthrown and Nasser was in power..Saudi Arabia had just signed a mutual defence pact with the US..Itaq was still ruled by the Hashemite Dynasty.. Iran had just nationalized all oil facilities.. and the sentiment in the area had turned against the west.. those who had had colonial rule or maintained the centuries-old monarchies in the area were a convenient focus for public sentiment..
The area, always volotile, went through a succession of Arabic coalitions, each with the destruction of Israel top of the agenda.. none of which was successful, and Israel remained the sole foothold the west had in the Middle East..
Now this note began with Jordan for a reason..Al Dustur is one of that country's most popular newspapers.."There will be no Eid after this one," the paper says. "What is coming is scary since we are at the threshold of a new stage of hegemony, domination and arrogance."
Referring to purported US plans to "democratise" the Middle East, starting with Iraq, the paper warns that "the tyrants are preparing to change our features and give us new identities".
Egypt's Al-Jumhuriyah has an Eid wish to make: "These blessed days [of Eid al-Adha] require political and diplomatic moves, full of strength and vigilance so that the happiness of Eid will be rewarded with victory over those plotting against Arabism and Islam."
"We would like to present one million roses from the gardens of Arab presidential palaces to Germany and France," Sudan's Al-Ray Al-Am says. "With this gesture we would like to express our appreciation to them."
The paper has a very different view of Washington: "The US is a dreadful military power, a cowboy frightening the whole world." But "the US is scared to death of Bin Laden and the al-Qaeda network, scared of Saddam Hussein and of North Korea."
It may well be a difficult jump for the American public to make, what with the collective guilt of those who would leave this part of the world to it's own devices, but the Middle Eastern culture, mindset, ethical yardstick, is not the same as theirs.. The same mistake was made in VietNam..
These people don't like us.. for whatever reasons history might toss at us. The fact remains, they don't like us at all..